WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder believes Anthony Joshua can still bounce back if he loses next month in the highly anticipated rematch with Andy Ruiz.

Back in June, Ruiz scored a huge upset when he dropped Joshua four times for a seventh round TKO to capture the IBF, IBO, WBA, WBO world titles.

There is a lot riding on the second fight - with many pundits believing that Joshua's career might be over, at the elite level, if he loses - but Wilder disagrees with the stance.

"A lot of people say 'If he loses the second time he's done' - no he's not," Wilder told Sun Sport.

"He's not done, that's up to him, how many people have come back and reigned? Look at Muhammad Ali, he reigned for longer in his second time as champion than he did the first time, that's how you become a two or three-time champion.

"So it's not over when you lose. You just have to start from the beginning.”

Wilder, who returns this coming Saturday night in a rematch with Luis Ortiz, views Ruiz as the bigger fight in terms of a 2020 unification.

"Not only will negotiations be easier,” says Wilder. “Joshua played around with us for four months and we tried to tell people about Eddie Hearn moving the goalposts.

"Ruiz will be a bigger fight than Joshua. I say that as I feel he'll beat him again and once he does it a second time, yeah he's way bigger. He has the Mexicans behind him and the Hispanics, they love boxing, they love it, and he's American too, he's got a huge population behind him.”